


Swamp Hunt

by Teaotter



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Bad Cajun accents, F/M, Masochism, Non-Graphic Violence, crazy love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-02-20
Updated: 2005-02-20
Packaged: 2017-10-04 06:04:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teaotter/pseuds/Teaotter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bella has always been dangerous. Remy doesn't seem to mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swamp Hunt

**Author's Note:**

> According to comics canon, Remy LeBeau and Belladonna Boudreaux were childhood sweethearts. This story takes place when they're both about 14. Warnings: Some underage mackage and non-fuzzy animal death.

Bella could sense Remy's excitement from where he crouched in the muck to her left, and it made her own heart pound. There, not ten feet in front of them, was their prey. It had taken half an hour for them to slip into position, sliding inch by silent inch through the Spanish moss to catch one that had wandered away from the others, sleepy with the night's quiet and completely unaware of the hunters so near.

She clenched the bowie knife more tightly in her right hand. It was a stupid, inadequate weapon for hunting an alligator - 'gatuh,' as the rednecked trash who brought them here would say. But Remy had insisted that she not use her own weapons, and the shotgun they'd offered was too insulting for words. This might be her only chance to hunt with Remy, and she refused to have it end in a messy flash.

Oh, they'd chased each other through the alleys of New Orleans, mock-hunting random strangers and tourists that caught their fancy. Enough that he knew the rhythm of her heartbeat when she ran, and she knew the way his muscles pulled those mutant bones of his. But those were kids' games. Bella knew from the base of her spine that she would be the youngest Master Assassin the guild had ever known, the youngest and the best. Tonight would prove it, or end it. Let God choose.

She rushed forward, ignoring the slap of her own feet in the mud, intent on the creature before them. She saw its eyes gleam open just before she leapt onto its back, wrapping her legs around its torso and both arms around its head as it bucked like a mad horse. Remy grunted behind her, riding the beast's tail. As long as they both held on, it probably couldn't kill them.

Bella squeezed her arms tight around the mouth. She had to keep the mouth closed; its strength was its bite, she couldn't let it grab her. She pressed her body along its back and held on as it bellowed and thrashed. She felt like she'd be broken in half as it bent her backwards, but she held on. But in this position, the knife was pressed flat to its muzzle. Useless.

Water crept up her legs as the alligator scuttled backwards into the swamp. It was all the warning she had before the murky slime flew up around them, slicking the tough skin. Her legs slipped for a moment, and she felt the air between her belly and the beast before she could latch back on tight enough. Remy's cursing told her he was still there for the moment.

Then the world twisted, and the water surged over her face, off, and over again. They were rolling in the water, its skin getting slicker and slicker with the muck they were raising. She timed her breaths to the roll and shifted her grip on its snout, inching the knife forward and down. The kicking and spinning made it hard to move her arm smoothly; too far and she'd take her own head off instead of the alligator's.

Her eye. Its eye. The world squeezed down to her grip on the beast, her knife moving down. her eye. Its eye. She got the breath wrong and choked on swampwater as the beast went all the way under, beating her against the cypress roots. She lost her grip, felt Remy slip, and knew the tail would catch her soon. She plunged the knife down wildly. _Let God choose._

There was a searing pain in her left arm and shoulder as the creature tore loose and slammed her into the mud. She was coughing on the water, struggling to free herself from the grabbing arms of the tree roots, trying to find air, anything. Something closed tight and sharp on her shoulder and dragged her out of the water.

"Bella, chere," she heard Remy gasp behind her. It was his hand pulling her out of the muck, up onto the shore. He dropped her to stagger a step away and fall down. She turned over and retched swampwater onto the muddy bank.

"Pretty." Remy was laughing at her - laughing! - with blood on one cheek and those demon eyes of his shining red in the night.

Bella ignored the wrenching in her back to crawl up the bank and into his lap. His muddy shirt was torn; he hissed as she ran her hand along the heat of his bruised ribs. His mouth was hot, too, and reeked of swamp but she didn't care. She buried one hand in his hair and pulled his head back, biting across his lip and jaw as she pushed him onto his back.

Remy's hands slid down her back to cup her ass and pull her against him. His wandering hands found a quick sharp pain in her thigh that made her gasp and grind down on him. He laughed into her throat and dug his fingers into the cut. She bit his shoulder hard to keep from moaning. Remy's hand kept rubbing her thigh, and the other worked its way under her shirt.

It was the splashing more than the laughter that caused her to lift her head. Thirty feet away, the swamp was lit yellow-grey with flashlights and the shadows of men wading into the muck. Two of them wrestled a long, heavy object out of the water and draped it over their shoulders. The dead alligator, with the bowie knife still in its eye.

"If y'all get done sparkin," a voice called out, "yore welcome back at the boat for the barbecue. We'll be eatin well tonight!"

Bella put her head back down on Remy's shoulder and laughed. It hurt.

"Ah, chere. Mes amis, they don't know you so well." He laughed and pushed her away, getting up with less than his usual grace. She let him pull her to her feet. "My Bella, she always has the spark."

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a writing sample for X-Factor 2010, an online RPG, and owes a great deal to X-Tricks's characterization of the pair in his story [I Married a Master Assassin](http://www.x-tricks.slashcity.org/Shorts/Master%20Assasin.html)


End file.
